Dementia Screening for Urban Aboriginal Australians: The Modified Kimberly Indigenous Cognitive Assessment (mKICA)

Dementia is a growing concern for Aboriginal Australians (1-2), but remains poorly understood in urban and regional (i.e., non-remote) Aboriginal peoples, who comprise the vast majority of Australia’s Indigenous population (3). There is a need for better understanding of dementia and appropriate services in these communities, but one of the major obstacles for research and clinical practice is that there are no validated cognitive screening tools for use in urban/regional populations. How to effectively and appropriately assess dementia and cognitive impairment is a key issue in working with (older) Aboriginal people. This pilot study investigated the use of three dementia screening tools, namely a modified version of the KICA (mKICA), RUDAS and MMSE. We aimed to determine their cultural acceptability and preliminary validity as screening tools for cognitive impairment and dementia in a group of Aboriginal people from urban and regional communities in New South Wales.